Vol. 468 No. 2
166 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if he will allocate significant additional resources to the Dublin city enterprise board in view of the fact that this board represents over 15 per cent of the State's population and is currently grossly underfunded. [14920/96]
From their establishment until the end of 1995, all city and county enterprise boards, regardless of the size of population, the level of unemployment in the area or the local opportunities for enterprise development, were allocated the same annual allocation. The Government recently approved the introduction of a new system for determining the annual allocations to the boards for 1996 and subsequent years.
The level of funding for each area has now been determined on the basis of an objectively-based resource allocation model taking account of such factors as:
— the population, overall size and relative needs of each area
— the capacity of each area to successfully utilise enterprise funding and to create employment
— the quality of the enterprise plan prepared by each city and county enterprise board.
The different allocations also take account of the overall expenditure pattern of boards and their record in programme development.
